Hennessey

In his quest to get his mitts on every piece of covetable sheetmetal on the planet, Jay Leno has just had aHennessey Venom GT in his modest little garage. With 1,200 horsepower packed into a lightweight chassis supplied by the gurus at Lotus, the machine is what our supercar dreams would be made of – if only we took LSD before bed. John Hennessey, the man behind this beast, says that the original goal for the Venom GT was to create a vehicle that made no apologies for its performance and power-to-weight ratio. As a result, don’t expect too many creature comforts to crop up in the cabin.

At around 2,700 pounds, the Venom GT provides one of the best power-to-weight ratios of any vehicle made today – production or otherwise. The biggest surprise is that even with all that power, the engine is sucking down about 18 psi of boost and runs off of pump gas. Sounds tasty to us. Hit the jump to see the late night funny man’s take onthe Venom GT.

The crowd of automotive fanatics at Cars and Coffee in Irvine, CA rarely gets too excited about a car. Everything from concept cars to pre-production models to dozens of supercars are fairly commonplace at the weekly gathering. Ferraris and Lamborghinis roll by without eliciting a second glance from onlookers, and even the mighty Bugatti Veyron only attracts minimal attention. It takes something unique car get everyone’s blood pumping at the most jaded car show on Earth. Which brings us to the the Hennessey Venom GT.

Before today, the car had yet to be publicly seen on U.S. soil, so its appearance at Cars and Coffee was a North American debut of sorts. The initial plan was to show the car at SEMA earlier this week, but delays at customs prevented the car from getting to Las Vegas in time.

To say that the Venom GT attracted attention is a huge understatement. The second the Hennessey crew rolled the car off the trailer and lifted the engine cover to expose the twin-turbo V8, a crowd of inquisitive car geeks formed, drooling over each and every detail of the bodywork.

We try and make it to Cars and Coffee more often than not, but sometimes the lure of a cozy warm bed at 6:00 AM on a Saturday morning makes it just too easy to hit the snooze button. When news came that the Hennessey Venom GT would be making an appearance, we made sure we set our alarm clocks (plus a few backups as well) and joined the rest of the early-risers to see the car in person. We came away with quite a bounty of photographs, which you can see in the high-res gallery below.

It may look like a steroid-fueled Lotus Elise that’s had a few too many trips to the gym – and we truly mean that in the very best way possible – but this latest video proves there’s no mistaking the fact that it ain’t powered by no wimpy four-cylinder engine sourced from Toyota.

Yes, of course we already knew that the Hennessey Venom GT is powered by a 6.2-liter LS9 V8 as used in the Corvette ZR1 in one of three force-fed configurations: the base supercharged mill with 725 horsepower and 741 pound-feet of torque and a pair of twin turbocharged beasts that put out 1,000 hp and 1,200 hp. (See adyno video here.)

But upon hearing this sucker start up and clear its pipes, even the mighty ZR1 cowers in the corner with its supercharged tail tucked firmly between its legs. It’s a modern-day Shelby Cobra, complete with its British-sourced chassis and big, burly American V8 power. We can hardly wait to see the Venom GT with our own eyes next week at the 2010 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

The 2011 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible is getting ready to take the stage at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, but John Hennessey and his band of tuners can’t wait that long. Hennessey Performance has announced plans and specs for its upcoming, limited-edition 2011 Hennessey HPE700 Camaro Convertible.

HPE had a hit on its hands when it announced the 2010 HPE700 Camaro. That 725-horsepower coupe was limited to just 24 examples and they were all quickly spoken for. Since Chevrolet is bringing out the droptop Camaro, Hennessey has decided to produce another 24-car limited-edition run with the 2011 model. The 2011 Hennessey HPE700 will be available in both coupe and convertible form, and the cars stats are staggering.

The HPE700 ditches the LS3 mill found in the standard Camaro SS and in its place sticks the superchargedLS9 from the Corvette ZR1. Hennessey says the motor has been tweaked to produce 755 hp and 763 pound-feet of torque. The 6.2-liter V8 is able to hit those numbers thanks to revised boost levels and a more robust fuel system. Thanks to all that power, Hennessey has listed a 0-60 mph time of just 3.3 seconds. A trip down the quarter-mile happens in 10.9 seconds at 130 miles per hour. Those figures are for the hardtop version when fitted with optional Nitto drag radials.Read more…